Battle of Pocotaligo
|place=Yemassee, South Carolina |coordinates = |result=Confederate victory |combatant1= United States (Union) |combatant2= CSA (Confederacy) |commander1=Brigadier General John M. Brannan |commander2=Colonel William S. Walker |units1=X Corps |units2=Beaufort District, Department of South Carolina |strength1 = 4,500 |strength2 = 2,000 With additional reinforcements from Charleston |casualties1=43 killed 294 wounded 3 missing Evans, Clement A., ed. [http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=publisher%3A%22Confederate%20Pub.%20Co.%22 Confederate Military History: A Library of Confederate States History]. Volume: 5. Capers, Ellison; South Carolina. Atlanta: Confederate Publishing Company, 1899. . Retrieved January 20, 2011. p. 106.Emerson, W. Eric. [http://books.google.com/books?id=oM_7IuTLyeIC&pg=PA46 Sons of Privilege: The Charleston Light Dragoons in the Civil War]. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2005. ISBN 978-1-57003-592-0. Retrieved October 23, 2012. p. 50. |casualties2=21 killed 124 wounded 18 missing }} The Second Battle of Pocotaligo, or Battle of Pocotaligo Bridge, or Battle of Yemassee, often referred to as simply the Battle of Pocotaligo, was a battle in the American Civil War on October 22, 1862 near Yemassee, South Carolina. The Union objective was to sever the Charleston and Savannah Railroad and thus isolate Charleston, South Carolina. Battle On October 21, 1862, a Union force of 4200 men, under the command of Brigadier General John M. Brannan, boarded transport ships and left Hilton Head, South Carolina. Brannan's orders were "to destroy the railroad and railroad bridges on the Charleston and Savannah line." Under protection of a Naval Squadron, they sailed up the Broad River, disembarking the next morning at Mackey Point (between the Coosawhatchie and Pocotaligo Rivers), less than ten miles distant from the railroad. The 47th and 55th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiments, under the command of Colonel Tilghman H. Good, began the march toward Pocotaligo. A smaller detachment of 300 men – two companies of engineers and the 48th New York regiment – moved up the Coosawhatchie River with orders to attack the bridge at Coosawhatchie and then turn towards Pocotaligo tearing up the rails as they went. Walker called for reinforcement from Charleston and Savannah, and deployed his Confederate forces to meet the two Union advances, sending 200 of his men to guard the bridge, while the Beaufort Volunteer Artillery (CS), supported by two companies of cavalry and some sharpshooters, were dispatched to meet the main Union advance on the Mackey Point road. Brannan's Division encountered the Rebels near the abandoned Caston's Plantation when the Confederate artillery opened fire with their two howitzers. The Confederates retreated when the Union artillery responded. Walker slowly withdrew, making a rolling defense while Brannan moved in pursuit, eventually falling back to the defensive works at Pocotaligo. The Union advance stalled when they encountered the Confederates on the opposite side of a muddy marsh where they blazed away at one another for more than two hours with musket and cannon fire, until the arrival of Confederate reinforcements. Aftermath As night fell, Brannan, realizing that the railroad bridge was out of reach, ordered retreat up the Mackay's Point road to the safety of his flotilla, the 47th Pennsylvania forming the rearguard, with the Rutledge Mounted Rifles and Kirk's Partisan Rangers in pursuit.Emerson, 2005, p. 47 Brannan's troops reembarked at Mackay's Point and returned to Hilton Head. References Category:Battles of the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War Category:Conflicts in 1862 Category:South Carolina in the American Civil War Category:1862 in South Carolina Category:Battles of the Lower Seaboard Theater and Gulf Approach of the American Civil War Category:Confederate victories of the American Civil War Category:Jasper County, South Carolina Category:History of Charleston, South Carolina